Mechanically Inclined – This is a book on teaching grammar. You’ve likely been annoyed by a grammarian at some point or other in your life, even if you consider yourself to be one, but Jeff Anderson is not one of the annoying types of grammar people. He’s not here to mock or review grammar rules that long ago lost their sex appeal by a thousand dry, textbooks with sentences offensive to thinking people everywhere.
The interesting concept here is that people don’t learn by looking at a lot of mistakes. At least not in the beginning. When you want to create something you imitate a master. You study the right way something is done over and over and attempt to align yourself to this correct way of doing things. Whether you’re an artist, a coroner, or a Christian, the way to progress is not by looking at the world to find the mistakes, it’s looking at a correct path and pursuing that.
Jeff Anderson demonstrates how to teach grammar, not by repeatedly showing students bad examples and asking them to correct them, but by having them look at lovely, well-written models and attempt to recreate them. It’s much more effective in students taking what they’ve learned and actually apply it. They are in the habit of doing it right because of good practice. As my old orchestra teacher used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”
The real value in this books comes from the 30 grammar lessons that briefly explain the grammar rule in plain English, share a student error and the thinking behind it, (Heart Thinking!) followed by mentor texts and sentence crafting exercises.
Beyond just learning to teach grammar, this book really cemented for me the idea that we speak what we think and then students model that. Don’t ask them to look for errors until they’re a little closer to being expert.